In a Nutshell: Research on the design and development of a ...



The Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard™:

The Intelligent Garment for the 21st Century

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In a Nutshell: Research on the design and development of a Sensate Liner for Combat Casualty Care has led to the realization of the world's first Wearable Motherboard™ or an “intelligent” garment for the 21st Century. The Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard uses optical fibers to detect bullet wounds, and special sensors and interconnects to monitor the body vital signs during combat conditions. This Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard (GTWM) provides an extremely versatile framework for the incorporation of sensing, monitoring and information processing devices. The principal advantage of GTWM is that it provides, for the first time, a very systematic way of monitoring the vital signs of humans in an unobtrusive manner. Appropriate sensors have been "plugged" into this motherboard using the developed Interconnection Technology and attached to any part of the individual being monitored, thereby creating a flexible wearable monitoring device. The flexible data bus integrated into the structure transmits the information to monitoring devices such as an EKG Machine, a temperature recorder, a voice recorder, etc. The bus also serves to transmit information to the sensors (and hence, the wearer) from external sources, thus making GTWM a valuable information infrastructure. GTWM is lightweight and can be worn easily by anyone -- from infants to senior citizens. GTWM has enormous potential for applications in fields such as telemedicine, monitoring of patients in post-operative recovery, the prevention of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), and monitoring of astronauts, athletes, law enforcement personnel and combat soldiers.

Need for an Intelligent Wearable Motherboard: It is hard to place a price on human life. Unfortunately, casualties are associated with combat and sometimes are inevitable. Since medical resources are limited in a combat scenario, there is a critical need to make optimum use of the available resources to minimize such casualties. Therefore, any effort to minimize the loss of human life has a value that is priceless. In a significant departure from the past, the loss of even a single soldier in a war can alter the nation’s engagement strategy making it all the more important to save lives.

Similarly, on the civilian side, the population is aging and the cost of healthcare delivery is expected to increase at a rate faster than it is today. With the decreasing number of doctors in rural areas, the doctor/patient ratio is, in certain instances, reaching unacceptable levels for ensuring a basic sense of comfort for people living in such areas. Patients discharged after major surgeries (e.g., heart bypass) typically experience a loss of sense of security when they leave the hospital because they feel "cut off" from the continuous watch and care they received in the hospital. This degree of uncertainty can greatly influence their post-operative recovery. Therefore, there is a need to continuously monitor such patients (at home) and give them the added peace of mind so that the positive psychological impact will speed up the recovery process. Mentally ill patients (e.g., those suffering from manic depression) need to be monitored on a regular basis to gain a better understanding of the relationship between their vital signs and their behavioral patterns so that their treatments (e.g., medication) can be suitably modified. Such medical monitoring of individuals is critical for the successful practice of telemedicine that is becoming economically viable in the context of advancements in computing and telecommunications. Likewise, continuous monitoring of astronauts in space, of athletes during practice sessions and in competition, of law enforcement personnel and combat soldiers in the line of duty are all extremely important. Moreover, with the extensive proliferation of inexpensive computing hardware and software and the emergence of the Internet, there are new avenues for personalizing information processing.

In other words, there is a need for an effective and mobile information infrastructure that can be tailored to the individual's requirements to take advantage of the advancements in telemedicine and information processing. Just as special purpose chips and processors can be plugged into a computer motherboard to obtain the required information processing capability, there is a need for an intelligent garment into which the wearer can "plug in" the desired sensors and devices. In short, there is a need for a "Wearable Motherboard" or a Sensate Liner that can fulfill the twin roles of being (i) a flexible information infrastructure; and (ii) a system for monitoring the vital signs of individuals (and pets too!). Indeed, the overall objective of the research has been to design and develop such an intelligent garment.

The Research Accomplishment: The third generation Wearable Motherboard is shown in Figure 1. This design was woven into a single-piece garment (an undershirt) on a weaving machine to fit a 38-40” chest. The plastic optical fiber (POF) is spirally integrated into the structure during the fabric production process without any discontinuities at the armhole or the seams using a novel modification in the weaving process. With this innovative deign, there is no need for the "cut and sew" operations to produce a garment from a two-dimensional fabric. This pioneering contribution represents a significant breakthrough in textile engineering because for the first time, a full-fashioned garment has been woven on a weaving machine.

An interconnection technology was developed to transmit information from (and to) sensors mounted at any location on the body thus creating a flexible "bus" structure. T-Connectors -- similar to "button clips" used in clothing -- are attached to the fibers that serve as a data bus to carry the information from the sensors (e.g., EKG sensors) on the body. The sensors will plug into these connectors and at the other end similar T-Connectors will be used to transmit the information to monitoring equipment or a pager-like device (e.g., DARPA's personal status monitor). By making the sensors detachable from the garment, the versatility of the Sensate Liner has been significantly enhanced. Since shapes and sizes of humans will be different, sensors can be positioned on the right locations for all users and without any constraints being imposed by the Sensate Liner. In essence, the Sensate Liner can be truly "customized." Moreover, the Sensate Liner can be laundered without any damage to the sensors themselves. In addition to the fiber optic and specialty fibers that serve as sensors and data bus to carry sensory information from the wearer to the monitoring devices, sensors for monitoring the respiration rate (e.g., Respitrace™ sensors) have been integrated into the structure; this illustrates the capability to directly incorporate sensors into the garment.

Three generations of Woven Wearable Motherboard have been produced and a knitted version of the Wearable Motherboard has also been created. Figure 1 shows the third generation Woven Wearable Motherboard. The lighted optical fibers illustrate that the Sensate Liner is "armed" and ready to detect projectile penetration. The interconnection technology has been used to integrate sensors for monitoring the following vital signs: temperature, heart rate and respiration rate. In addition, a microphone has been attached to transmit the wearer's voice data to monitoring locations. Other sensors can be easily integrated into the structure. For instance, a sensor to detect oxygen levels or hazardous gases can be integrated into a variation of the Sensate Liner that will be used by firefighters. This information along with the vital signs can be transmitted to the fire station where personnel can continuously monitor the firefighter's condition and provide appropriate instructions including ordering the individual to evacuate the scene, if necessary. Thus, this research has led to a truly and fully customizable "Wearable Motherboard" or intelligent garment.

The vital signs monitoring capability has been tested by a subject wearing the garment (Figure 2) and measuring the heart rate (EKG) through the sensors and T-Connectors. In Figure 3, the EKG trace from the Wearable Motherboard is shown along with the control chart produced from a traditional set-up. Similarly, the wearer's temperature has been monitored using a thermistor-type sensor. A subject wearing the Sensate Liner continuously for long periods of time evaluated the garment's comfort. The subject's behavior was observed to detect any discomfort and none was detected. The garment was also found to be easy to wear and take-off. For monitoring acutely ill patients who may not be able to wear the Sensate Liner over the head (like a typical undershirt), Velcro™ and zipper fasteners are used to attach the front and back of the garment creating a garment with full monitoring functionality (Figures 4 and 5). Thus, a fully functional and comfortable Wearable Motherboard or Sensate Liner has been designed, developed and successfully tested for monitoring vital signs.

How to Use the Smart Shirt? To use this new technology, a combat soldier attaches sensors to his body, pulls the Sensate Liner T-shirt on, and attaches the sensors to the T-shirt. The T-shirt functions like a motherboard, with plastic optical fibers and other specialty fibers woven throughout the actual fabric of the shirt. To pinpoint the exact location of a bullet penetration, a 'signal' is sent from one end of the plastic optical fiber to a receiver at the other end. The emitter and the receiver are connected to a Personal Status Monitor (PSM) worn at hip-level by the soldier. If the light from the emitter does not reach the receiver inside the PSM, it signifies that the Sensate Liner has been penetrated (i.e., the soldier has been shot). The signal bounces back to the PSM from the point of penetration, helping the medical personnel pinpoint the exact location of the soldier's wound.

The soldier's vital signs-heart rate, temperature, respiration rate, etc. are monitored in two ways: through the sensors integrated into the T-shirt; and through the sensors on the soldier's body, both of which are connected to the PSM. Information on the wound and the soldier's condition is immediately transmitted electronically from the PSM to a medical triage unit somewhere near the battlefield. The triage unit then dispatches the appropriate medical personnel to the scene. The Sensate Liner can help a physician determine the extent of a soldier's injuries based on the strength of his heartbeat and respiratory rate. This information is vital for assessing who needs assistance first during the so-called 'golden hour' in which there are numerous casualties. The Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard (GTWM) can be used in several distinct modes: (i) GTWM-C in combat or field operations; (ii) GTWM-M in medical monitoring; and (iii) GTWM-P for personal information processing.

In the battlefield or combat casualty care mode, GTWM-C can detect the penetration of the projectile (e.g., bullet or shrapnel) while simultaneously monitoring the vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure and temperature. Thus, in this mode, the Sensate Liner will be used by soldiers, police and other law enforcement personnel.

In the monitoring mode, GTWM-M will not include the penetration detection component and it will be used to monitor the vital signs of individuals very effectively and in a less cumbersome manner than is possible today. Thus, in this mode, the Sensate Liner will be used mainly by space explorers, medical patients and athletes. It could also be used to monitor the conditions of pets under acute care.

In the personal information processing mode, GTWM-P will function as a true motherboard and accommodate “chips” for specific end-uses with the optical and special fibers functioning as data buses for transmitting information. Thus, in this mode, the Wearable Motherboard can be used by anyone to process information such as surfing the Web, listening to music and computing.

Significance and Impact of the Research: This research at Georgia Tech has led to a groundbreaking contribution with enormous implications: The creation of a wearable information infrastructure that has opened up entirely new frontiers in personalized information processing, healthcare and telemedicine, and space exploration, to name a few. Until now, it has not been possible to create a personal information processor that was customizable, wearable and comfortable; neither has there been a garment that could be used for unobtrusive monitoring of the vital signs of humans on earth or space such as temperature, heart rate, etc.

Specifically, the Wearable Motherboard technology will have a significant impact on these key facets of human endeavor and will lead to the following:

1. Personalized Information Processing: A revolutionary new way to customize information processing devices to "fit" the wearer by selecting and plugging in (or removing) chips/sensors from the Wearable Motherboard (garment).

2. Healthcare and Telemedicine: Monitoring and treatment of humans including those in post-operative recovery (e.g., heart surgery); geriatric patients (especially for those in remote areas where the doctor/patient ratio is very small compared to urban areas); mentally ill patients for a better understanding of diseases such as chronic depression; children susceptible to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome); and individuals prone to allergic reactions (e.g., anaphylaxis reaction from bee stings).

3. Space Exploration and Specialized Monitoring Applications: Monitoring of astronauts in space in an unobtrusive manner and the knowledge to be gained from medical experiments in space that will lead to new discoveries and the advancement of the understanding of space. Likewise, the monitoring of firefighters, policemen and soldiers who encounter major threats in their lines of duty will significantly enhance their job safety and performance.

4. Spawning of a New Industry: Just as the home security industry is a big business that monitors and protects homes, the Wearable Motherboard technology has the potential to spawn a new industry for the reliable and effective monitoring of patients at home and thereby transform home healthcare delivery.

In short, the new paradigm spawned by the Wearable Motherboard provides an exciting opportunity that can not only lead to a rich body of new knowledge but in doing so, enhance the quality of human life. The potential impact of this research on medicine was further reinforced in a Special Issue of LIFE Magazine "Medical Miracles for the Next Millennium" in which the Smart Shirt or Wearable Motherboard was featured as one of the "21 Breakthroughs that Could Change Your Life in the 21st Century".

Research Funding: The research has been funded by the US Department of Navy under contract # N66001-96-C-8639.

The Georgia Tech Research Team

Dr. Sundaresan Jayaraman, a Professor in the School of Textile & Fiber Engineering, is the principal investigator. Ms. Sungmee Park is a Research Associate; Dr. Rangaswamy Rajamanickam is a Research Engineer; and, Dr. Chandramohan Gopalsamy is a Research Associate.

For ore information, please contact

Dr. Sundaresan Jayaraman

Professor

Georgia Institute of Technology

School of Textile & Fiber Engineering

Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0295

Tel: 404/894-2490

Fax: 404/894-8780

E-mail: sundaresan.jayaraman@tfe.gatech.edu



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